Miles of footprints on the journey to a healthy life

The last half of PT was nothing short of amazing.
We had a blast doing Tabata, running and skipping hills, sweating, lifting, losing.
The best part is that I actually started seeing the scale move down. (Fishface saw scale results from jump.)
A loss for me for the first half of training would be a matter of a half pound here and there.
Then, Nikki gave me the homework to hit the Arc three times for 45 minutes in one week.
At that point, I think I’d only been on that death machine between 15 and 20 minutes before my lungs exploded.
On Sept. 12, I completed my first 45-minute Arc workout. The second – Sept. 14 and the third on Sept. 16.
I freaking did it.

And that is when everything changed.

The Arc and I took our relationship from “it’s complicated” to “madly in love.”
I’m guessing all that Arc sweat shocked my body into finally shedding pounds.
Throughout the rest of September and all of October, I continued to combine the Arc with strength training, along with core/ab work, and (I pray I’m not jinxing things) the scale has made me quite happy. I’ve nearly blitzed through a whole decade of weight in the last few weeks.

The results haven’t just appeared because of the gym time. It’s all about what I put into my body, as well.
I’ve been using My Fitness Pal every day to track everything I consume.
Logging daily and sweating for nearly 1.5 to 2 hours every other day is what it takes for me to see results.

Until Nikki, we’d never had a personal trainer.
I am happy to say the whole experience served us incredibly well. It gave us the motivation and desire to make this a lifestyle.
The only regret I have is not getting a Nikki in my life before now.
But everything happens when it’s supposed to, I like to think.

Yeah so…writing and I have a seriously strained relationship as of late.
It happens. Sometimes we just can’t get on the same page.

Rest assured I’m trying to find my way back, especially since such exciting things have happened with PT.
Boggles my mind that when I stop writing my life actually progresses. Hmm – quite an unsettling correlation.
Nonetheless, I do plan to give updates on how the last half of PT shaped up and how we rocked our latest fitness assessment.

So, it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted. There’s good reason for that.
Mini go-cay (that’s how the in-laws vacay) and a mini stay-cay.
Translation: no blogging, no writing.

Anyway, I’m back at it and I really shouldn’t have waited to write about our last sweat sesh, which was nearly two weeks ago. My memory isn’t what it used to be.
What I can’t forget though is how brutal it was.
For weeks, I’ve been telling Nikki how I rock at the Treadie and how I wanna get me some kettlebells in my life.
Laughable.
In fact, the Treadie and I have a long way to go, and there’s a pretty good learning curve to kettlebells for this girl.
The week before our last session Nikki mentioned sprinting, so I got brave and sprinted 30 seconds here and there on the Treadie at 6.0. I felt like a badass.
Little did I know the universe was preparing me for what Nikki would do to us the next week.
She ramped up that Treadie’s incline way too high and wanted me to run at 6.0 for way more than 30 seconds.
I really wish I’d written down the specifics, because it was so intense.
I needed water. Couldn’t stop. Not allowed.
I praised all of Baby Jesus when my shoes came untied, so I could get a five second breather.
It’s the little things.
Y’all this was like 20 minutes on what I thought was my favorite machine.
Nikki has the fantastic ability to find horror in all my favorite things. ;) That’s gotta be a requirement of a good personal trainer, right.
Kettlebells were tough, but not the worst thing I’ve ever done.
I’ll take another stab at ‘em, I suppose.
Summary of Week 5: all the things I thought I wanted in life…I was wrong.

We have our next session tomorrow, and that will mark the half way point for us in training.
The Labor Day go-cay meant way too many extra calories some days (yes, we still tracked them), but I was proud of us for hitting the gym hardcore while away for a full-body workout. And we walked. So much walking. And swimming. We tried to stay active everyday, which is much different from some of our past vacays. Victory.
We skipped training last week, because I felt it would be a wasted week. Honestly, I didn’t need that scale to tell me I’d eaten gator tail and enjoyed beer.
However, we ate well and worked out all week once we got home. Woot.
So, I’m hoping that scale is kind to us tomorrow. And Nikki. I am growing more and more fearful of the unknown torture she is planning…probably as I type. ;)

Ever watch The Biggest Loser and see contestants puking in buckets?
Yep, I’d be that girl.
Last Wednesday’s KILLER workout didn’t actually make me vomit, but I sure was scanning the room for the nearest trash can. There were moments when I was sure it was going to happen.
But like a boss, I swallowed the puke feeling away and kicked some serious butt.
Nikki really turned the heat up with this hour. I hadn’t been sore since our first workout, but my abs and shoulder blades were all on fire the next day.
Here’s what she devised for us:

Week 4

Yeah, that picture does no justice. I wish someone had taken video of what this torture looked like on us.
It was a hot mess.
We started on the elliptical, which for the record I only love when I am unable to do the Treadie. I greatly dislike it.
When Nikki showed us each move we’d do during the circuit portion, I had a thought about each station. Then, when she said do it “5 times” I already wanted to leave. ;0)

In my head:
Ball bounce: yeah, right into my face
Front kicks: got this all day. I do those in my sleep
Cross punches/side lunges: hmm, ok, I can probably do that
Bicycle crunches: UHHHHH NO!!!! I hate you, bicycles!
Rest: YES!!
Repeat: NO!

How it played out:
Ball bounce: took me four circuits to bounce the ball hard enough and gain confidence I wouldn’t bounce the ball into my head
Front kicks: (the irony) one of the hardest stations. Standing there and kicking with the same leg for 30 seconds, five times is hard on the abs. Trust! This station=nausea.
Cross punches: Well, hello shoulder blades. It’s been a minute since I’ve noticed you. Five pound weights never felt so heavy. Still, a doable station until round 5. Round 5 was my limit.
Side lunges: I’d really rather not look in the mirror when I do these. Yikes.
Bicycles: This station was 30 seconds and I praise Jesus it took us 10 of those seconds to get down on the mat into form. LOL. 20 seconds of these bad boys and I wanted to die. Bicycles mean vomit! They hurt the abs SO good.
Rest: We had one minute to stay on the floor and cry or hurry and get water. Our choice. Fastest minute ever.
Repeat: Circuit 1 through 3 was all about keeping my vomit down. Didn’t think I would make it through 4. Seriously. When I finished 4, I rejoiced like it was the last one. I told Nikki I can do anything one last time. Knowing 5 was the last time, I was pumped!
Bottom line: HOLY CIRCUIT TRAINING!

I love Nikki for allowing us to sub out flutter kicks for the bicycles during the last two circuits. I’ll do a flutter whatter all day, before I ever do a bicycle again.

Oh and before all this torturous goodness, we had our weigh-in.
The Fish lost another two pounds. He is rocking this -ish all day long. I’m very proud of him!
And I posted a 0.6 loss. I was excited, since there’s been none of that.
I’ll take a loss, no matter how small, to the moon!

Hopefully this week will be good to us, too. I’m already praying for no bicycles.

The bad thing about weighing in at the start of our training is the brave face you gotta put on when the number doesn’t reflect a loss. Not even a tenth of a pound last week. So yeah, no loss whatsoever from the previous week. Then, our trainer gave us the choice between elliptical and arc trainer. I think I was so angry at the scale, because I lost all common sense and went beastly on that Arc Trainer. It’s growing on me, I suppose. For me, this training was more torturous mentally than physically, because I was having a down week emotionally. Head just all over the place, and not in the game. Then, the scale knocked me down a whole ‘nother level. Nikki pushed us through a great strength training session full of bicep, tricep and shoulder work. And she was super encouraging throughout the workout, pointing out my muscles in the mirror. I mean the guns are forming pretty nicely, if I do say so myself. ;) I love weights! For me, the weight machines I’d been working on all year never produced results. Free weights make me feel stronger and are making things more muscular, less jiggly. Woot to that! After weights, we had the choice again of Arc or Ellip. This time we suffered through the latter. Ugh that machine. Then ab work and stretching. Ab work=PLANKS! So many planks. Side planks were introduced this week and proved to be quite the killer. Even though the weigh-in didn’t reflect my work from the previous week (so much yoga), I gave the workout my all. And I was so proud of me for not getting too caught up in the lack of numbers and pushing through. I’d say by two days later I was fully out of my mental funk and ready to kick butt. Which happened! Last night. So much butt was kicked during this week’s training. And maybe, just maybe there was a loss…